ADA News
Progress reported on IHS dental 'challenges'
Washington—American Dental Association and Indian Health Service congressional testimony report progress in recruiting and retaining IHS dentists as the agency launches an initiative to reduce "epidemic" level tooth decay among Native American children.
"The dental program is seeing improvement," the Association told Congress. "Two years ago, there were over 140 dental positions open. Last year that number fell to 87. Today it is 55." The Association commended IHS and tribal caries initiatives and urged Congress to support them (ADA News Today April 16, ADA commends tribal caries initiative to Congress).
Dr. Mark Walker, Council on Government Affairs chair, testified for the Association, which also offered more detailed written testimony. "The most pressing oral health issue in Indian Country is tooth decay, or caries, among young children,” he testified. “It has reached epidemic proportions."
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ADA describes 'excellent' IHS student outreach Washington—Indian Health Service dental recruiters "have conducted an excellent campaign to attract dental students to participate in their summer extern program as a way to introduce them to the service," the Association told the House Appropriations Committee. "Thanks to this committee's recognition of the success of this program we expect that the IHS will be able to place up to 240 applicants this summer." The IHS received applications from 322 dental students representing 49 dental schools in 2008 and had funding to place 120 students. The ADA supports the IHS extern program with travel support for second year dental students who assist the externs, introducing even more students to career opportunities serving Native Americans. |
Dentist/Rep. Mike Simpson (Idaho), ranking Republican at the House appropriations hearing, engaged IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux, M.D., in a dental conversation in which she described the IHS early childhood caries initiative as "very innovative" and the dental vacancy rate as "improved."
"The problem of dental caries, especially in American Indians and Alaska Native children, is quite significant, and it's an incredibly challenging problem, given the problems that can cause them in the future," Dr. Roubideaux replied to Rep. Simpson's inquiry (ADA News Today Jan. 26, Curbing caries, boosting access goals of IHS initiative). The IHS director is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota.
"Historically, recruitment and retention of health care professionals has been one of the greatest challenges for providing consistent and proper health care in Indian Country," Rep. Simpson continued. "Can you tell me what are you doing to address that problem because obviously recruiting and retaining health care providers is one of the most important things we can do in making sure that we have available health care services regardless of the health care bill that passed (a reference to recently enacted health care reform legislation)."
"In terms of recruitment and retention, we're looking at position descriptions and how much we pay providers and trying to see how we can be more competitive, either through their salaries or through additional incentive pays or bonuses," Dr. Roubideaux replied. "And I have to say, that has really helped us with the dental vacancy rate and the additional incentive pays and improvements in salary, along with an increase in loan repayment awards to dentists has really improved our dental vacancy rate."
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| Testimony: Dr. Mark Walker, chair of the ADA Council on Government Affairs, testifies April 15 before a House appropriations subcommittee discussing oral health issues of Native American children. Dentist/Rep. Mike Simpson looks on. (Photo by Bill Geiger) |
"We are making progress with the electronic dental record," Dr. Roubideaux replied. "It's critical for us to be able to provide good clinical care and track administratively our care. This funding will get us up to about 80 of our sites potentially implementing the electronic dental record. And we realize we still have another 145 sites to go, but we want to continue trying to make progress to implement it, because we understand it is so important for us to provide better quality dental care."
The Indian Health Service used $4 million in economic stimulus funding and $1 million from the dental budget toward developing an electronic dental record, Dr. Roubideaux testified.
